Mission Statement

Adopted by the Board of Trustees in 1982

Prologue

Founded in 1969 as a public, four-year college within the New Jersey system of higher education, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey offers baccalaureate level programs in the arts, sciences, and professional studies. A residential college whose students are drawn from throughout the state, Stockton is located at the edge of New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, 12 miles northwest of Atlantic City.

Mission

At Stockton we seek to help our students develop the capacity for continuous learning and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances in a multicultural and interdependent world by insisting on breadth, as well as depth, in our curriculum. We believe that the breadth inherent in an interdisciplinary approach to liberal education both prepares students for inevitable career changes, and enriches their lives.

We insist on excellence in teaching and dedication to learning. These, indeed, are the guiding principles of our mission. Moreover, we recognized a responsibility not only to transmit received ideas to our students but to participate in the development of new ideas. Accordingly, we encourage continuous research, learning, and professional development for our faculty and staff.

Quality academic programs are best created, developed, and maintained by a high degree of faculty and student responsibility for, and participation in, the educational process. For that reason, the College is committed to faculty-wide involvement in general education and in teaching such academic skills as writing, quantitative analysis, and logical reasoning. Breadth, then, is not only a desirable outcome for our students, but a requisite for the faculty who teach these students. To teach beyond the traditional bounds of one’s area of formal expertise, across disciplinary lines, and to interrelate the traditional disciplines, requires an extraordinary effort from faculty. It is imperative that the executive administration and the trustees provide the resources and the atmosphere, which will make such exceptional effort both possible and appreciated.

Our insistence upon breadth of education for all students does not preclude an emphasis on depth of study in the major disciplines but rather, supplements it. Our academic programs must offer students a real understanding of the ideas and methods of their disciplines, including those most recently developed. Exposure to many disciplines and intensive investigation of one discipline should prepare graduates to move into appropriate fields of employment, or to continue with graduate academic or professional study.

At Stockton we believe that co-curricular activities complement the academic curriculum and, along with classroom education, help students develop the capacity for making intelligent choices. While we offer students assistance in and out of the classroom, we emphasize and encourage student initiative in their co-curricular life, and responsibility for their education.

We value diversity and the differing perspectives it brings. Accordingly, we are unequivocally committed to implementing the principles of affirmative action in the composition of our student body, faculty, and staff.

Just as students must receive an education that is sufficiently broad to permit flexible response to changes in society, so too the College must be able to change and adapt to differing circumstances and needs in our society. In order to best fulfill our mission, we must all recognize the limitations of our resources, and respond by a prudent and flexible allocation of those resources.

Finally, Stockton is committed to the positive development of southern New Jersey. Through research and community service, we actively seek to take advantage of and to improve the unique physical and human environment in which the College is located.

GRADUATE EDUCATION MISSION STATEMENT

Adopted by the Board of Trustees February 18, 1998

The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey provides quality graduate programs which promote advanced inquiry and application of new knowledge, foster advanced-level career opportunities, and transmit our cultural and intellectual heritage in all its diversity. Its graduate programs are consistent with the College’s commitment to the liberal arts and support the undergraduate program through enriched resources, the discovery of new approaches to teaching and learning, and the creative use of new technologies. Through accessible graduate education the College responds to the State and regional needs.

(The Mission Statement is under review by the Stockton University Board of Trustees to reflect a change in name from “ Richard Stockton College of New Jersey” to “ Stockton University”. The change in status to university was approved by the State of New Jersey on February 13, 2015, and the change in name to Stockton University was approved by the board of trustees on February 18, 2015.)